Every week we ask an interesting figure what they're digging into. Have ideas who we should reach out to? Let it fly: info@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Want to read more? Check out the archives.

Levi Fuller is a Seattle based musician, who plays in Levi Fuller & the Library, and The Luna Moth, and is the founder of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly (of which he says that he's "really been meaning to come up with a tagline for like "the longest-running quarterly CD-R compilation series in Northwest Seattle" or something), and is the Administrative Coordinator at Jack Straw Cultural Center, where he manages their residency program for artists of all genres and disciplines and assists with daily operations. You can go see Levi Fuller & the Library on November 17 at the Blue Moon Tavern for their EP release party, and pick up the EP itself the new EP (which features a cover illustration from SRoB contributor Clare Johnson) on November 11th.

What are you reading now?

Right now I'm reading Beyond Birds & Bees, by Bonnie J Rough. It's a pretty new book that happens to be timed perfectly for me and my wife, as parents of a just-turned-three-year-old. It's filled with practical and thoughtful advice and ideas around raising kids with healthy outlooks on sexuality, their bodies, gender, etc. — you know, all that stuff we do so well in this country. I could not recommend it more strongly to anyone with a kid, the younger the better. As a generally liberal person who still has a lot of weird New England protestant hangups, it's eye- and mind-opening in the best ways.

What did you read last?

Before that I read Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk about Race, which has been on my list for a while. (I only noticed when I started the Rough book that they're both published under the same imprint — so shoutout to Seal Press for publishing some badass local women.) As a fan of Oluo's work and someone who's always looking for ways to be a less harmful version of a white man, I knew I wanted to read this the moment I heard about it, and it did not disappoint. Even for someone who pays attention to these issues and has gone through some anti-racism and racial equity training, there was still plenty to learn here. As much as all parents should read Bonnie Rough's book, all white people should read this one.

What are you reading next?

My "what's next" is often left up to whatever hold I forgot to reactivate at the Library, but right now I specifically want to go back to some fiction (but I will keep with the theme of badass local women). Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum was working on her short story collection What We Do with the Wreckage when she was a Jack Straw Writer, and I enjoyed what I read and heard of it then, so I can't wait to read the whole collection.